Planning or no planning?

“There must be a time of day when the man who makes plans forgets his plans, and acts as if he had no plans at all.
There must be a time of day when the man who has to speak falls very silent. And his mind forms no more propositions, and he asks himself: Did they have a meaning?
There must be a time when the man of prayer goes to pray as if it were the first time in his life he had ever prayed; when the man of resolutions puts his resolutions aside as if they had all been broken, and he learns a different wisdom: distinguishing the sun from the moon, the stars from the darkness, the sea from the dry land, and the night sky from the shoulder of a hill.” - Thomas Merton

Some of my best trips have been the ones where minimal planning was involved. Times when we just look at each other and say "Let's go...." We take day trips in the car sometimes. We'll pick a direction and go. One time we drove 5 hours just to go get barbeque. We like to take the road that parallels the interstate when possible just to have something to look at rather than billboards and trucks.

Next weekend we leave for the South. I've looked and researched and plotted and planned and threw it all away. I might want to drive 5 hours one day instead of 8. I might want to take this detour toward the west rather than honor the reservation I might have made at this or that park. I don't know where we will be Christmas day. And that is what makes it so important just to go. I do know this: We are leaving Dec 22 and returning Jan 1 or so. The cats are staying home and arrangements are made. There are a few people that have indicated we stop by on our way. But as I explained I can make no promises, for I don't know what day or time I'm coming through.  I'm going to eat an Oyster Po'Boy, I know that.

There will probably be alligators somewhere.

And if they want my shoes they can have them. My wife has already informed me that if she sees an alligator around the camper she is not getting out....

I've got a camera and will take way too many pictures. This will be our longest jaunt in the camper yet. She'll have crafts, I'll have books. I've never really developed a hobby but I keep looking!

We'll be staying mostly in State Parks I think. Louisiana looks like it has some wonderful parks and I've been reading the adventures of the Gypsy BoHo Express and her reviews.

So thats it, I have to get through the next week or so of work and then onward and upward. Or downward, since I'm headed south.